Penguin Island eBook

In the enthusiasm of victory the renovated Penguins
delivered themselves up to a dragon, more terrible
than that of their fables, who, like a stork amongst
frogs, devoured them for fourteen years with his insatiable
beak.

Half a century after the reign of the new dragon a
young Maharajah of Malay, called Djambi, desirous,
like the Scythian Anacharsis, of instructing himself
by travel, visited Penguinia and wrote an interesting
account of his travels. I transcribe the first
page of his account:

ACCOUNT OF THE TRAVELS OF YOUNG DJAMBI IN PENGUINIA

After a voyage of ninety days I landed at the vast
and deserted port of the Penguins and travelled over
untilled fields to their ruined capital. Surrounded
by ramparts and full of barracks and arsenals it had
a martial though desolate appearance. Feeble
and crippled men wandered proudly through the streets,
wearing old uniforms and carrying rusty weapons.

“What do you want?” I was rudely asked
at the gate of the city by a soldier whose moustaches
pointed to the skies.

“Sir,” I answered, “I come as an
inquirer to visit this island.”

“It is not an island,” replied the soldier.

“What!” I exclaimed, “Penguin Island
is not an island?”

“No, sir, it is an insula. It was formerly
called an island, but for a century it has been decreed
that it shall bear the name of insula. It is
the only insula in the whole universe. Have you
a passport?”

“Here it is.”

“Go and get it signed at the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs.”

A lame guide who conducted me came to a pause in a
vast square.

“The insula,” said he, “has given
birth, as you know, to Trinco, the greatest genius
of the universe, whose statue you see before you.
That obelisk standing to your right commemorates Trinco’s
birth; the column that rises to your left has Trinco
crowned with a diadem upon its summit. You see
here the triumphal arch dedicated to the glory of Trinco
and his family.”

“What extraordinary feat has Trinco performed?”
I asked.

“War.”

“That is nothing extraordinary. We Malayans
make war constantly.”

“That may be, but Trinco is the greatest warrior
of all countries and all times. There never existed
a greater conqueror than he. As you anchored
in our port you saw to the east a volcanic island called
Ampelophoria, shaped like a cone, and of small size,
but renowned for its wines. And to the west a
larger island which raises to the sky a long range
of sharp teeth; for this reason it is called the Dog’s
Jaws. It is rich in copper mines. We possessed
both before Trinco’s reign and they were the
boundaries of our empire. Trinco extended the
Penguin dominion over the Archipelago of the Turquoises
and the Green Continent, subdued the gloomy Porpoises,
and planted his flag amid the icebergs of the Pole
and on the burning sands of the African deserts.